Baking dough is made, formed and conveyed by mechanical means in a modern bakery operation. A premeasured amount of dough is portioned out, then formed into balls of dough. Typically, the portion or ball of dough is moved, either manually or by endless conveyors, from one preparation stage to the next.
The prior art discloses conveyors and ramps that rely on the “force of gravity” (U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,833) to convey dough balls from one preparation station to the next; and the use in automated processes of manually lifting and placing of dough balls, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. RE34,530 noting “labor intensive . . . manual individual positioning,” and U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,056 disclosing “manually moving the dough balls about . . . to dust them with flour, the attendant then manually picks up the dough balls, one at a time in each hand, and places them onto” next station.
To reduce the doughmakers manually moving dough balls in an automated bakery process, suction lifting means have been tried (see, U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,336 disclosing “suction gripper” for food items). The suction or vacuum devices often damage the dough ball, and too, these devices are susceptible to clogging with dough or sticking to the unbaked dough.
A need exists for mechanical apparatus, combinable with automated dough preparation equipment, which provides the utility of lifting dough balls without damage and with minimal sticking, and of placing the balls of dough on the next means for conveying the dough balls through the dough and bakery process. This aim is achieved by the present invention.